St Johnstone join Hibs in Scottish Cup final
Callum Davidson has vowed to beef up St Johnstone's coronavirus safeguards to ensure their Scottish Cup final hopes are not threated by another quarantine drama.
The Perth outfit are on course for a cup double after substitute Glenn Middleton helped steer the bet fred cup winners past st Mirren at Hampden. But they had to do without a key quartet as they booked a May 22 showpiece showdown with Hibernian.
Davidson saw his pre-match plans blown apart on thursday when the club announced two players had tested positive for Covid-19 - with another couple ruled out through track-andtrace measures.
There was no sign of Stevie May, li am craig, murray davidson and second-choice keeper Elliott paris hat the national stadium butt heMcdiar mid men had enough to see off jim goodwin' s Buddies, with Middleton setting up Chris Kane's opener before netting himself two minutes later with a free-kick.
"I' m delighted ," said davidson afterhisteam's2-1win."it'sbeen a real tough week ." it just shows you that Covid is still about. We've obviously been trying to stay to the very strict guidelines attheclub-butthisweekshows how quickly it can spread.
"We haven't really done anything different to what we've done all season. We had to shut the place down after the results came in and training was disrupted. We've hardly trained this week. But the players' attitude was tremendous. I'm just delighted for them. I'm not angry about the situation, I just wanted to make sure the players were safe. We now need to find out how the virus came into the club and try to stop it at source because it's the last thing you want. We will be extra careful. we might be even stricter and tell the lads to just turn up for training at the grass and go home again after. Bring your pack lunch with you! I'd hate for players to miss out on the final because of Covid so it's my duty to make sure everyone is as safe as possible ." davidson is a contender for the manager of the year awards after leading Saints into their second final of the season. But the 44-year-old said: "It's all credit to the players. For a club like us to get to two final sin one season is an amazing achievement.”
St Johnstone might be considered a small club on the verge of the biggest of things; nay a monumentally big thing. Yet it should be recognised why they find themselves a Scottish Cup final over Hibernian away from a cup double that would represent one of the most outstanding achievements in the annals of our game.
It is because they have found the secret to winning the way football’ s serial silverwares na ff lersdo.S mall club in stature, big club in big moments across a potentially annus mirabilis for them.
The 2-1 semi-final success for Callum Davidson, inset, and his men over St Mirren was an object lesson in the importance of cutting it at crucial moments.
That is something the Perth club did in their January League Cup semi-final win over a Hibs side they will now meet in the Hampden decider of this competition on May 22.
They did it again to land a first League Cup with a final success over Livingston. And it was something that St Mirren ultimately failed to do against them yesterday, the Paisley club passing up glorious chances - the best of the tie, indeed - across a largely stodgy, goalless first hour.
The semi-final, in a nutshell, wasn’t merely the Perth club netting twice inside three minutes before surviving a late onslaught after Jim Goodwin’s men pulled a goal back in 86th minute to set up a frantic finish.
No, the story was about clinical finishing when it mattered. Chris Kane – following up his tie-turning, last-gasp equaliser against Livingston, which goalkeeper Zander Clark’s intervention largely oveshadowed - produced another tieturning strike – and that made the difference.
While Kane showed composure and conviction to slide in and direct a low, left-wing cross from Glenn Middleton away from Jak Alnwick, these qualities were excruciatingly absent when Collin Quaner was presented with a similar opportunity nine minutes earlier. Then, the St Mirren forward, only introduced from the bench five minutes earlier, was guilty of one almighty howler. His foot seemed to be transformed into a 50p piece as he somehow clipped a gift of a cross from Ilkay Durmus way wide of the target as it appeared entirely at his mercy.
The double-whammy for the Paisley club was Middleton - a transformative 66th-minute substitute, making it 2-0 in the 74th minute with a curious free-kick strike. He sweetly chopped the dead-ball over the defensive wall, but the reality is that Alnwick then bizarrely dropped to his knees as the ball dropped in at centre of his goal. St Mirren, though, could not be faulted for their refusal to meekly accept their fate.
And, when Conor Mccarthy rose above the St Johnstone defence to head in with four minutes of normal time left, they gave themselves a glimmer of hope of changing the game, with Jamie Mcgrath almost finding the net with a thumping frive in the closing minutes. But, in contrast to the victorious men from Perth, the story for the Paisley team was typical of vanquished wee teams in such scenarios.
The attritional nature of much of the first half perhaps betrayed the magnitude of the occasion for both clubs.
Rightly, much has been made of St Johnstone’s bid to become only the fourth Scottish club to land a cup double and the fourth outside of Glasgow since Aberdeen did it in 1989-90. Yet, the Paisley club were also pitching to recall
memories of football’s mulletage since they had not reached a final since they were triumphant in the competition in 1987.
Such weighty history was not all that may have played a part in the bitsy manner that Davidson’s men set about their tasks. The Perth manager admitted that preparations for the trip to Hampden - a third in four months following their League Cup exploits - had been significantly impacted by two positive Covid-19 tests among his squad, which forced two other players into isolation. He revealed the club had closed down for two days, but he also had to face rejigging his side without the four unnamed, unavailable players.
There was no Liam Craig nor Stevie May in the St Johnstone squad, and their play seemed to lack any shape.
The talking point of the early stages was a double penalty claim for St Mirren 18 minutes in. There is no doubt that Jamie Mccart inadvertently handled a spinning ball after a painful challenge he made that left Kristian Dennis writhing in agony. However, the clatter and the contact did not seem to warrant referee Willie Collum pointing to the spot, with Mccart’s arm not in an unnatural position and Dennis jabbing his foot towards
his opponent more than anything. Those of a St Mirren disposition would argue that case but they would not dispute that their downfall was self-inflicted.
Even if St Johnstone had greater control as the half wore on, they should have been one-up in half an hour, with Lee Erwin, on the stretch, stabbing a teasing cross from Dennis straight at Clark, the keeper merely spreading himself to ensure his frame was a barrier.
If the striker had found any touch either side of the keeper. At that point, the complexion of the contest could have
altered. That, of course, is the familiar lament of small clubs when they are on the wrong end of a result in a rare major cup occasion.
The big teams, in contrast, merely content themselves with basking in the spoils however these might have been earned.
St Mirren: Alnwick; Fraser, Mccarthy, Shaughnessy; Tait (Connolly 68), Mcgrath, Doyle-hayes, Erhahon (Brophy 77), Durmus; Erwin, Dennis (Quaner 56).
Subs not used: Flynn, Obika, Mcallister, Findlayson, Lyness, Henderson.
St Johnstone: Clark; Kerr, Godon, Mccart; Rooney, Mccann, Wotherspoon, Bryson, Booth; Kane (O’halloran 86), Melamed (Middleton 65). Subs not used: Brown, Conway, Gilmour , Robertson, Ferguson, Zlamal.